Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Swiss stocks rose, even as the
benchmark index completed its first weekly loss this year, as
U.S. data showed hiring and manufacturing expanded last month in
the world’s largest economy.

Credit Suisse Group AG climbed 1.8 percent after people
familiar with the situation said the lender plans to return to
the commercial-mortgage bond market. Swatch Group AG and Cie.
Financiere Richemont SA each advanced at least 3 percent after
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA reported an increase in
full-year profit and predicted a favorable 2013.

The SMI gained 0.4 percent to 7,420.35 at the close in
Zurich. The gauge still dropped 0.5 percent this week as the
Swiss franc rose against the euro. The broader Swiss Performance
Index added 0.5 percent today.

“The markets are just focusing on the glass that’s more
than half full, which is good U.S. economy, very strong economy
in Asia, and some recovery in Europe in the northern tier,”
Andrew Popper, managing director at Beauclerc Advisory Services
Ltd., said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Guy Johnson.
“The markets are not getting ahead of themselves. Certainly
they have gone up significantly, but we are also seeing periods
of correction and consolidation, so I’m not worried.”

U.S. Payrolls

A U.S. Labor Department release in Washington showed
payrolls rose 157,000 in January following a revised 196,000
advance in the prior month and a 247,000 surge in November. The
revisions added a total of 127,000 jobs to the employment count
in November and December. The jobless rate increased to 7.9
percent from 7.8 percent.

U.S. manufacturing expanded at a faster pace than expected
last month. The Institute of Supply Management’s factory index
rose to 53.1 in January from 50.2 the previous month, more than
the median forecast for a 50.7 reading, according to a Bloomberg
survey. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.

Swiss manufacturing output expanded for the first time in
17 months in January. The procure.ch Purchasing Managers’ Index
advanced to 52.5 from a revised 49.2 in December, when adjusted
for seasonal swings, Credit Suisse said. That’s the first
reading above 50 since August 2011.

In China, an index based on a survey of purchasing managers
came in at 50.4 in January as manufacturing output expanded for
a fourth month, the National Bureau of Statistics and China
Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said. A separate gauge
from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics covering fewer
businesses rose to a two-year high of 52.3.

Mortgage Market

Credit Suisse climbed 1.8 percent to 27.37 francs.
Switzerland’s second-biggest lender is approaching borrowers
with potential terms on new loans that would be packaged into
securities and sold off in one deal, according to people
familiar with the talks. Drew Benson, a spokesman for Credit
Suisse in New York, declined to comment.

Swatch, the world’s biggest maker of Swiss watches,
advanced 3.6 percent to 517.50 francs and Richemont added 3
percent to 77.10 francs. LVMH, the world’s largest luxury-goods
maker, said profit increased in all its divisions amid growth in
the U.S. and Asia.

Cosmo Pharmaceuticals SpA rallied 6.7 percent to 47.50
francs, its highest price since the company’s March 2007 initial
public offering. The drugmaker said Dutch regulators approved
the sale of its Cortiment treatment for inflammatory bowel
disease, reversing an earlier ruling.

Gurit Holding AG gained 1 percent to 417.25 francs. Sales
rose 1.8 percent to 351 million francs in 2012 from a year
earlier, the company said late yesterday. Gurit said it expects
the wind energy market, where the company gets more than half of
its revenue from, to recover gradually this year.

The volume of shares changing hands in SMI-listed companies
was 2.8 percent higher than the average of the last 30 days,
data compiled by Bloomberg showed.